Wireless communication networks such as WLANs (wireless local area networks) or mobile radio networks for example are formed by base stations, whereby the base stations each have a radio transmitter unit which in each case implement a radio area. The radio areas or radio cells of the base stations are designed to be predominantly overlapping in the area of the respective communication network in order to ensure a continuous overall radio area for the wireless communication network.
Mobile terminals of wireless communication networks are registered in the case of stationary operation in a radio area and a connection, or a communication relationship, from a mobile terminal to a further mobile terminal or also a cabled terminal is effected by way of the base station, in which the mobile terminal is currently registered. If the mobile terminal moves from one radio area or from one base station into a further adjacent radio area or to the base station implementing the further radio area, at the edge of the radio area in which the mobile terminal is registered the mobile terminal is redirected from the one to the other base station. To this end, in the mobile terminal the levels of the received radio signals from the adjacent radio areas are measured and if the level of the radio signal from the further radio area exceeds the level of the radio signal from the current radio area the terminal is redirected from the current to the further base station—also referred to in professional circles as a handover. This handover procedure is standardized in the GSM or WLAN or DECT wireless communication networks, whereby the communication relationship for the respective mobile terminal is also redirected precisely from a current to a further base station by the handover procedure.
In order to achieve such a handover of the terminal, the base stations or the radio stations of the radio areas must at least periodically emit a radio signal so that the respective radio area can be recognized or the level of the received radio signal can be measured by the mobile terminal. This periodic emission of the radio signal by a base station must occur even if no connection is switched or routed by way of the respective base station or if no mobile terminal is activated in the radio area of the respective base station.